Limeworld.com

RIP Daddy from Dog Whisperer

Limegirl — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:58:46 +0000

After 16 long and wonderful years, Daddy has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. So sad for those of us left behind, but we were all blessed by his presence, even for those of us who never had a chance to meet him. What an AMAZING dog. Goodbye Daddy, I’ll tell my critters to come and greet you.

Chat Roulette

Limegirl — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:35:25 +0000

A quick summary:

- penis
- penis
- blank screen
- lying-down-typing guy
- penis

That’s pretty much everything you need to know.

Knowing Kurt

Limegirl — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:41:02 +0000

If you haven’t heard about this anecdote yet, I’m sure you will soon. Kurt Cobain will be the main draw for many people, but I loved the sweetness of the story, the emphasis really being on two people connecting as opposed to just another name-dropping story. I hope Mary Lou Lord goes on to write a book about the music scene in the 90’s.

Dion McGregor

Limegirl — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 21:20:23 +0000

The Further Somniloquies of Dion McGregor: Food Roulette

Yes, somniloquy is a real word, and it’s about to become your favourite. Ever been told that you talk in your sleep? Ever been around someone else who does? Dion McGregor is by far the most audible and comprehensible sleep-talker I’ve ever personally experienced or heard recordings of. Not only that, but his somniloquies are actually coherent, sometimes as elaborate as the one I’ve posted below. There are so many good ones, but Food Roulette is one of my favourites.

Bravo Alex!

Limegirl — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 03:38:05 +0000

You made our country so proud tonight. Congratulations!!!!!

COFFEE MAKES ME EXCITED

Limegirl — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 01:12:36 +0000

I’m having a musical orgy, right here, right now. I realize that Das Racist – Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell was obsessed over by the whole world quite a while ago now, but I heard it for the first time today, so cut me some slack. I heard it playing on the local college radio station as I pulled into my parking stall, at which point I parked, ran into the house and googled the song while tearing off my jacket and twitching like a junkie.

I will not conceal the fact that I have been running around the house singing “I’m at the Pizza Hut (what?) I’m at the Taco Bell (huh?) I’m at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bellllllllll” like I have some sort of vocal tic. Yes, I do all the parts. Yes, I try to sound as “street” as I can, to impress the cats.

Also? Yacht is at the Pawn Shop on February 22nd. Christian Hansen and the Autistics are opening. I peed a little when I discovered this. My new-found employment will now allow me to afford this indulgence, and I am giddier than a 5 year-old running on 2lbs of solid chocolate bunny crack.

THE WORLD IS ENTIRELY IN CAPS.

Recipe Renovation

Limegirl — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:16:00 +0000

I love Epicurious.com, but as with most things gourmet, some of the recipes are a little rich. I appreciate their recent initiatives to promote their lighter choices, but some of the lighter recipes miss the mark. One of them was the any-day alternative to baked macaroni and cheese. Two reviews seemed reasonably happy with the recipe, but two others were thoroughly dismayed by the lack of creaminess. Even one of the positive reviews commented on the lack of creaminess.

I like macaroni and cheese. I like it high brow, I like it low brow. I like the kind made with whole milk and cheese, baked until the cheese has a nice crispy crust on top. As much as I hate admitting it, I also enjoy the kind made with processed cheese, and even Kraft Dinner. What I’m aiming for, though, is something that is creamy in texture without being heavy. If I can give it a crispy topping without sending the calories through the roof, I will be mighty pleased. So that’s my mission. I’m going into the lab/kitchen, and I’m not coming out until I’ve found a way to make this.

Food Porn

Limegirl — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 20:54:55 +0000

I’ve gotten really excited about food lately. Okay, I’ve always been excited about food, but I’ve been super stoked about cooking. Being on a tight budget, cooking has become a hobby I can indulge in without any additional costs and the associated guilt.

Everyday I find something new to get excited about. Yesterday it was meatloaf, as I haven’t had it in years, and the cookbook I got for Christmas has the most beautiful looking recipe in it. Today it’s anything with lemon and lime flavours.

Look at that cake and tell me that doesn’t look gorgeous. Couldn’t you just live in that? That was inspirational enough to send me looking for various combinations, and I found some that I adore:

Lemon Meringue Custards – one could easily substitute half of the lemon zest and juice for lime zest and juice, thereby making the whole thing even MORE awesome.
Lemon Custards with Lemon Verbena – does that not sound gorgeous? Oh man.

Naturally, this amped up my enthusiasm for custard, which I adore. In my search for custard-related recipes, I found a recipe for Bittersweet Chocolate Soufflé with Earl Grey Custard Sauce. I’ve never made a soufflé in my life, but with a description like that, I’m sure as hell going to try!

Factual Inaccuracies

Limegirl — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:15:10 +0000

So Seuss has been watching Fringe lately. I say that he has been watching it lately, because every time I watch an episode, someone makes some scientific claim that is so blatantly false, I want to jump through the TV and strangle them.

Apparently I’m not the only one who feels this way. I decided to look for Fringe TV inaccuracies, and stumbled across a thread at the Straight Dope forum. I’ve been reading this thread for an hour, and I can’t get enough. So many examples of factual inaccuracies, and so funny. I’m so glad I’m not the only one who twitches every time someone uses made-up science.

I’ll continue to passively absorb bits and pieces of episodes, if only so that I can feed the nitpicking fire.

—————–
Update:
Oh TV Tropes, how I love you and never knew. A quote from You Fail Biology Forever,

“Fringe. Dear god, the science in this is horrible. Given the premise it seems clear they are deliberately invoking Rule Of Cool, as they don’t even try to make sense. Perhaps it takes place in an alternate dimension with different rules…which would be appropriate for the show”

and

“Fringe is Hollywood Science taken to its illogical extreme – given time, it will offend all disciplines. Biology and physics are just the regular whipping boys.”

I believe J.J. Abrams lives by the Rule Of Cool, and would apply it in real life if he could. I believe he has a condo over the shark.

Skepticism

Limegirl — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 08:01:06 +0000

How oddly appropriate that the same night I have an amazing chat with my mother, I stumble across a post about being a lifelong cynic.

I’ve always vacillated somewhere between skeptic and cynic, depending on where I was in my life. The above picture is the perfect example of how, at 3 years-old, I wasn’t buying all this Santa Claus jazz, and I certainly wasn’t going to sit on some strange man’s lap. Neither of my parents ever felt any need to carry on the charade, as it was obvious from early on that I wasn’t buying any of it. Tooth Fairy? Easter Bunny? Just give me the candy/coins, and I’ll play along if I must, but until my firmly skeptical father provides me with legitimate evidence of their existence, I’m not buying any of it.

My family never went to church, but my parents were always an amusing juxtaposition of belief sets. My father grew up in the ~~Pentecostal~~ Christian and Missionary Alliance Church, and later found himself disillusioned by organized religion. Science became his belief system, and he wasn’t going to believe in anything that hadn’t been extensively examined and scrutinized. My mother grew up Buddhist/Shinto in Japan, which while ever-present and permeating every part of the culture, was not particularly rigid. She has always had a flexible approach to spirituality, and has frequently incorporated new things into her belief system, whether it be a loose interpretation of Christianity, or all things paranormal.

Somehow this eventually resulted in a skeptical 10 year-old attending a bible camp without either myself or my mother fully realizing it was a bible camp. A Christian family friend suggested it, and while we understood that the camp was Christian, I was expecting a regular camp with the occasional prayer and grace at mealtime. Rather than the canoe trips and orienteering I had been expecting, we spent quite a bit of time memorizing bible verses in a camp-wide competition to earn the most points for our bunkhouse. This was novel and amusing, as I had never read a bible in my life, and the content of the verses floated entirely without context in my mind. Every evening, we were presented with an impassioned sermon from our pastor/minister about how failing to take Jesus into our hearts would result in eternity in purgatory. Some nights he would emphasize the tragedy of missing out on the experience of allowing Jesus into our hearts, other nights he would go on and on about the fiery terror that would await the non-believers among us.

I weighed these sermons rather heavily each night. In part because I was a compulsive people-pleaser, but also in the interest of covering my bottom-line. I wasn’t about to believe in something that I wasn’t being provided concrete evidence of, but I wasn’t keen on taking the chance of being wrong. I decided to make a bargain with God/Jesus, if he did in fact exist; I would do my utmost to be a good person and generally aspire to conduct myself as Jesus would, and he would agree not to throw my ass into the fires of Hell. I decided that God had to be a reasonable and practical guy, and would understand the arrangement.

Cynicism/skepticism rarely limits itself to the spiritual and fantastical, however. It wasn’t long before I was cynical about the institution of marriage, true love, the nuclear family, and any and all things that are found in Hallmark cards. Naturally, I somehow ended up with a romantic that I initially regarded as hopelessly naïve and in need of protection from the ugliness of reality. As much as we were opposites, my ex softened the cynic in me, eventually making me realize that believing in something can make a lot of things possible that my cynicism never did. Being hard and cynical didn’t spare me from sadness or disappointment, and having hope really didn’t cost me any more. He gave me a lot of courage to work towards things that I otherwise would have given up on, simply because I didn’t believe they were possible.

My cynicism/skepticism is still something I both value and struggle with. There are situations where it has protected me from unscrupulous people, but there are situations where it has also prevented me from connecting with genuine people. Today was a reminder that sometimes I need to set my cynicism aside and just let things in. I thank the universe for that lesson . . . and God, in my own way.